How much did/will your monthly bill increase if you upgrade?

[Paradox-SJ]

I currently have the AT120 w/locals : 45.00
Additional reciever fee (508): 5.00
DVR Service fee (942): 6.00
Old HD Pack: 10.00
----------------------------------------------------------
For a total of $66.00

If I were to upgrade to the HDSilver (AT120+New HD Pack) my new monthly charges would be:

HDSilver with/locals: 65.00
Additional reciever fee (942): 5.00
DVR service fee (622+942): 12.00
-------------------------------------------------------
For a total of $82.00


So my month bill goes up by 24% and for what? Basicly for HD content that we dont find compelling.

I know that I will eventualy have to upgrade as the word is all the HD channels will be converted to MPEG4 by Fall 2007 but for some reason to me this is beggining to feel a lot like cable.

 

[BFG]

i'm not budging yet.

Only had to pay the $2 increase of At120 so far...

but is I were to upgrade it would be an extra $6.01 a month plus taxes

 

[rhollinger]

You forgot the $6 lease fee so it's even worse.

I was AT120 as follows:
AT120
Locals
DVR
additional receiver
total was around $60 (before price increase)

My new bill as quoted by Dish for
Bronse (yes, AT60 downgrade)
Locals
DVR
Lease
Addition receiver
Total $80

So my rates went up $20, I get less channels and I'm forced to take the entire Voom pack. However I've been waiting for a long time to get an HDDVR that can do locals that was MPEG4 so I figured I'd take the hit. If I get a raise this year I might apply some of it to upgrading to AT120 or maybe just look into AEP but I hate to pay $115/month for TV when a lot of what we end up watching is network.

We don't watch a lot so we follow a few shows a week on network
I watch SciFi Friday
My wife watches Lifetime to fall asleep to
We both watch TVLand at times
Kids watch Disney, Nick, and Toon
They would watch NickT, TDISN, etc if available but when LMN went 180 there was only FSN and TDISN keeping up the 120 level and FSN wasn't a strong enough draw.

 

[BFG]

I would go bronze, but AT60 is missing several channels that almost every cable system has on their analog tier these days:

Bravo
FX
WGN
BET
MSNBC
Fox News

And sometimes on AT120 I'll watch my RSNs and GSN and Oxygen

 

[RobertsD]

I'm also staying with what I have(AT60, old HD pack, 942, 625), I don't feel like paying all that extra money for the Voom channels that I won't even watch.

 

[mdonnelly]

I currently have the AT120 w/locals : 45.00
Additional reciever fee (508): 5.00
DVR Service fee (942): 6.00
Old HD Pack: 10.00
----------------------------------------------------------
For a total of $66.00

If I were to upgrade to the HDSilver (AT120+New HD Pack) my new monthly charges would be:

HDSilver with/locals: 65.00
Additional reciever fee (942): 5.00
DVR service fee (622+942): 12.00
-------------------------------------------------------
For a total of $82.00


So my month bill goes up by 24% and for what? Basicly for HD content that we dont find compelling.

...

And a second HD DVR.

 

[dougruss]

I'm also staying with what I have(AT60, old HD pack, 942, 625), I don't feel like paying all that extra money for the Voom channels that I won't even watch.

I agree............just keeping the Package that I have now with my 811. Actually...Zoom is getting pretty Boring !!

 

[jerryez]

My bill went down! I went from AT120 to AT60. HBO & Max to just HBO And distant locals to no locals. They would not let me have the distant HDs, so I dropped the distant SDs, since they were worthless.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

If I upgrade, I'm going to downgrade my programming. From AEP w/HD & VOOM to HD Silver & HBO. Right now it's $99.98, afterward it will be $80.96, which includes the DVR fee that I'm not paying now.

Of course if I stay with the same programming I have now, it would be $99.99 with HD Platinum. But I'm not watching much SD anymore, so I'm payinig for channels that I'm not using. I can drop it $19 and only lose one HD channel (Showtime). I could keep it for another $8/month but probably won't.

I've already dropped the Superstations and PBS, saving me $7.49/month. The bill was $107.47. I get local PBS in HD, and both local WB and UPN channels in digital SD, which is better than Superstations quality.

 

[Weezknight]

If I upgraded I'd end up paying an extra $14 per month, just to keep the SD programming I want, just because E* wants to force VOOM on us. Right now I'm sticking to my AT180 with HD Package, and still getting the SD channels I want.

 

[MNETOP]

And you guys are not even counting the price you are paying for the right to lease the hardware which should be counted in the equation. Say you are upgrading to the 622 for $300.00. If you amortize that over 3 years, it is an extra $8.00 a month! You really have to do if you want to compare to other services in my opinion.

If you do that, Dish doesn't sound that much cheaper, does it?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I don't subscribe to Dish because it is cheaper. I sub because it is far better than my local cable company. Consider that I get my HD locals via OTA. My cable company offers 6 additional HD channels, Dish offers approx 25 additional HD channels.

 

[MNETOP]

I don't subscribe to Dish because it is cheaper. I sub because it is far better than my local cable company. Consider that I get my HD locals via OTA. My cable company offers 6 additional HD channels, Dish offers approx 25 additional HD channels.

Tom,

That probably means that you really enjoy and watch the VOOM channels and that puts in the category of customers that will choose Dish over cable or DTV.

I, on the other hand could not care at all for the VOOM programming. I had the original offering for 2 months and did not watch a single program so I canceled. I don't want to be paying $10 more a month for channels I don't watch. And could not get my locals on a consistent basis. So, leaving Dish was the right decision for me.

Mario.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Yes, I enjoy the VOOM channels very much.

In fact if I grouped my HD channels into the following groupings:

Networks OTA
HD Pak w/ESPN
HBO/Showtime
VOOM

The group that I watch the most is the VOOM package.

 

[BFG]

weird...

 

[bigthrust]

Just upgraded from AT 180 w/ HBO & Max + DVR fee to AEP (without DVR fee) for a +9.02 diff. I have a 301, 510 and a 810. Since I still have an 810 I get HD-HBO and HD-SHO at no cost.

So now I get all movie channels + 1 more HD channel for only $9.02 more. Before the new Dish price changes, this configuration would have cost me $22.00 more.

 

[BobMurdoch]

My bill went down about $6 last month as there is a discount for AEP if it is combined with Playboy now. I'm also dropping TV5 and RFI which I had gotten for my wife and I who "parle un peu francaise", but we never really watched it much.

It should be about a wash.

 

[jrfuda]

I went from Top120 with 1 DVR and 1 regular box (522 and 322) to HSGold with a 622 and 522. My bill went (will go on Friday - install date) from about $50 to about $95. I get more channels and a second DVR for the upgrade. If, after a few months, I find we're not really using the extra channels, we may go down to HDSilver and save some $$$.

 

[navychop]

For example, I currently have a 721, 508 and 301. The 721 & 508 are grandfathered to not have DVR fees charged.

My current bill is:

AT180........................$49.99
Insurance.....................$1.99 (grandfathered at this rate)
SD additional rcvr fee....$10.00
Taxes.............................-0-
Total..........................$61.98


When I upgrade to the ViP622/HDGold, and drop the 301, my bill will be:

HDGold.......................$69.99
Insurance.....................$1.99 (grandfathered at this rate)
SD additional rcvr fee....$10.00
HD lease fee..................$6.00
HD DVR fee...................$5.98
Taxes.............................-0-
Total..........................$93.96


If I were to upgrade to the ViP622, and drop the 301, and move to the HD Platinum pack, my bill would be:

HDPlatinum..................$99.99
Insurance.....................$1.99 (grandfathered at this rate)
SD additional rcvr fee....$10.00
HD lease fee..................$6.00
HD DVR fee......................-0-
Taxes.............................-0-
Total........................$117.98

For the extra $31.98 per month, I get satellite HD for the first time, approximately 25 channels. We figure 3 of them will interest us regularly. I also get a larger hard drive, Ethernet connection, and a USB port for archival storage and the DishPlayer (which I would not consider buying until it supports HD).

The platinum pack adds the 4 movie channels, and the HD versions of HBO & ShowTime. And drops the DVR fee. If we wanted to sub to those movie channels, it would be cheaper to go Platinum than to go Gold with the add on movie package. We just don't watch that many movies.

I hope this example is of some use.

 

[rdinkel]

Went from AEP + HD + Voom + locals + Superstations + distant networks to HD Platinum + locals + Superstations + distant networks for $2.89 more a month. And that is with swapping out an owned 6000 (which I sold) for a leased Vip211. Am pleased.